At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Robotics space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Trevor McFedries
Co-founder & CEO of Brud
Trevor McFedries is the Founder and CEO of Brud.
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About Brud: Brud is a group of problem solvers specializing in robotics, artificial intelligence, and their applications to media businesses.
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Jiajun Zhu
Co-Founder and CEO of Nuro
Jiajun Zhu is a co-founder of Nuro. he used to be the principal software engineer of Google. He eraned his master’s degree ta University of Virginia and his bachelor’s degree at Fudan University.
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About Nuro: Nuro develops and operates a fleet of electric self-driving vehicles that are built to deliver assorted local goods.
William Jeffrey
President and CEO of SRI International
William Jeffrey, Ph.D., is president and chief executive officer of SRI International, a leading research and development organization serving government and industry. Jeffrey joined SRI in 2014. From 2008 to 2014, Jeffrey was president and CEO of HRL Laboratories, a corporate R&D organization owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors. Prior to joining HRL, Jeffrey served in the George W. Bush Administration as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Jeffrey also served in the Executive Office of the President as senior director for homeland and national security and as assistant director for space and aeronautics within the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Earlier in his career, Jeffrey was deputy director for the Advanced Technology Office and chief scientist for the Tactical Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and assistant deputy for technology at the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office. Jeffrey started his professional career at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). Jeffrey is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, an elected Honorary Member of the International Society of Automation, a recipient of the 2008 Navigator Award from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Jeffrey is a member of the Board of Directors of TE Connectivity Ltd. Jeffrey received his M.A. and Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University, and his B.Sc. in physics is from MIT.
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About SRI International: SRI International is a nonprofit, independent research center serving government and industry.
Erik Palitsch
Co-Founder & CEO of Freeform
Erik Palitsch is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Freeform Future.
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About Freeform: Stealth-mode additive manufacturing company.
Eugene Izhikevich
Co-Founder & CEO of Brain Corp
Eugene M. Izhikevich is Chairman and CEO of Brain Corporation in San Diego and was formerly Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute, San Diego.He is editor-in-chief of Scholarpedia, the free peer-reviewed.
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About Brain Corp, Scholarpedia: Brain Corp develops core technology for the robotics industry.
Jordan Kretchmer
Co-Founder and CEO of Rapid Robotics
Jordan Kretchmer is the Founder and CEO of Livefyre. Livefyre brings the social web right to any publisher or brand site to drive real-time conversations and community engagement. The company’s suite of real-time products include LiveComments, LiveBlogs, and social content curation, and Livefyre’s customers include FOX News, CBS, Dow Jones, AOL, TIME Magazine, and thousands of others. Kretchmer founded the San Francisco based startup in December 2009, and has overseen its growth to the 7th largest site network on the web, delivering 1 billion live content streams every month. Before launching Livefyre, Kretchmer was the Vice President of Brand at Current TV where he led brand redevelopment for the media company. Previously, he was the Digital Creative Director at Butler Shine Stern and Partners, and Vice President/Associate Creative Director at Mullen Advertising. Kretchmer lives in San Francisco.
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About Livefyre, Rapid Robotics: Rapid Robotics provides out-of-the-box automation for manufacturers.
Kai Yu
Founder & CEO of Horizon Robotics
Dr. Kai YU is the founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics Inc. He is a recognized pioneer and leader in deep learning and artificial intelligence. He was the founder and Head of Baidu Institute of Deep Learning (IDL), the first and most established artificial intelligence R&D center in China industry. Dr. Yu is elected to China “Top 1000 Talents”, a prestigious group of technology leaders of the country.
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About Horizon Robotics: Horizon Robotics focuses on artificial intelligence computing for smart mobility.
Jorge Heraud
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Blue River Technology
Jorge is the co-founder and CEO of Blue River Technology Inc. (www.bluerivert.com), a start-up company that intends to revolutionize weeding and dramatically reduce chemical use.
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About Blue River Technology: Blue River Technology employs computer vision and robotics technologies to build intelligent solutions for the agricultural industries.
Sasan Amini
Co-Founder and CEO of Clear Labs
Sasan combined his academic expertise and passion for healthy living when he co-founded Clear Labs with a mission to set a new paradigm for food safety and quality. Prior to serving as the CEO of Clear Labs, he worked in the Advanced Research department at Illumina. Sasan earned his PhD in Genomics from Princeton and holds multiple patents and publications in the field.
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About Clear Labs: Clear Labs is a provider of a fully-automated sequencing platform for turnkey diagnostics.
Vikas Gupta
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Wonder Workshop
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About Wonder Workshop: Wonder Workshop provides a platform that makes programming fun and accessible for children while they play.
Adam Bry
Chief Executive Officer of Skydio
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About Skydio: Skydio uses artificial intelligence to create flying drones that are used by consumer, enterprise, and government customers.
Scott Phoenix
Co-founder & CEO of Vicarious
Scott Phoenix is the co-founder and CEO of Vicarious, an AI company that is building artificial general intelligence for robots. Vicarious has raised over $135 million in funding from luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos. Prior to co-founding Vicarious, Mr. Phoenix was entrepreneur-in-residence at Founders Fund, and a CXO at OnlySecure (acquired byNetShops) and at MarchingOrder (Ben Franklin Partners). He is an advisor to Base10 Partners, Felicis Ventures, and 8VC in the areas of AI and hard technology investments, and a global advocate for the development of safe AI. He earned his BAS in Computer Science and Entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About MarchingOrder, Vicarious: Vicarious is an artificial intelligence company that uses the computational principles of the brain to develop general intelligence.
Vitaliy Goncharuk
CEO and Founder of Augmented Pixels
I am CEO and founder of Augmented Pixels, based in Palo Alto, California, which provides software for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for augmented reality(AR/VR Glasses) and autonomous navigation(Robots / Drones). In 2016 I was honored to be a mentor and a judge at NASA(USA) Space Race project (link: http://bit.ly/2k1pTRX ) and was also asked to report in front of the board of directors of National Academy of Sciences (USA) about the long-term impact of Artificial Intelligence in several industries(link: http://bit.ly/2jPQ3Vy ). My hobbies: Skydiving, Good books, Mafia game(not Werewolf :=)), Jiu Jitsu(japanese style) and Control Line.
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About Augmented Pixels: Augmented Pixels – a leader in precise 3D geolocation and 3D maps crowdsourcing technologies
Phillip Walker
CEO, Co-Founder, Board Member of Transcend Robotics
A serial entrepreneur who values hitting milestones for investors and producing scalable results.
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About Transcend Robotics: Transcend Robotics is a startup that develops ground-based mobile robots.
Melonee Wise
CEO of Fetch Robotics
Melonee Wise is the CEO of Fetch Robotics, which is delivering collaborative robotic solutions robots for the logistics industry. Melonee was the second employee at Willow Garage, a research and development laboratory extremely influential in the advancement of robotics. While there, she led a team of engineers developing next-generation robot hardware and software, including ROS, the PR2 and TurtleBot. Melonee is a recipient of MIT Technology Review’s TR 35 award for technology innovators under the age of 35, and has been named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence and 40 under 40 lists. Under her leadership, the company won the MODEX Innovation award for the materials handling industry, as well as being named to RBR 50, a listing of the 50 most innovative robotics companies in the world.
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About Fetch Robotics: Fetch Robotics provides the market’s only cloud-driven Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) solution for warehousing intralogistics environments.
Ryan Tseng
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Shield AI
Ryan Tseng is Shield AI’s Co-Founder and CEO. Prior to founding Shield AI, Ryan founded and led a series of other successful technology companies, including WiPower, a wireless charging company that was acquired by Qualcomm. The technologies Ryan and his WiPower team created launched the magnetic resonance wireless power industry; technology pioneered by WiPower now forms the cornerstone of the Airfuel (previously, Rezence) wireless charging standard that has been adopted by over 200 companies including market leaders Samsung, Intel, and Verizon. Ryan earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Florida and his MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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About Shield AI: Building the world’s best AI pilot.
Arye Barnehama
Co-founder and CEO of Elementary Robotics
Co-Founder & CEO @ Elementary Robotics, building affordable, intelligent robots powered by computer vision and machine learning. Backed by Fika Ventures, Fathom Capital, Toyota AI Ventures, and more! Previously founded Melon, startup in residence at IDEO, shipped thousands of units of hardware, and acquired by Daqri in 2015.
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About Elementary Robotics: Elementary Robotics is a robotics startup that built a platform for applying machine learning to the logistics industries.
Gabe Sibley
Founder & CEO of Verdant Robotics
Gabe Sibley is the Founder & CEO at Verdant Robotics, Inc.
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About University of Colorado Boulder, Verdant Robotics, Zippy.ai: Verdant Robotics manufactures robotics systems; the company’s current platform delivers transformative agricultural services.
E Hao
Co-CEO of GWC
He is currently Partner and Co-CEO of GWC. He was Vice President of TCL Corporation and CEO of TCL Multimedia. He had held the positions of Assistant to Chairman of TCL Corporation, VP of TCL Multimedia and GM of Emerging Markets Business Center. He has rich experiences in international business operation. Mr. Hao is skilled in cross-border/culture business and experienced in automotive, on-line gaming and consumer electronics industry. Mr. Hao earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from York University (Canada) and EMBA degree from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
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About GWC: Enabling Innovation that Improves the World
Bill Huang
Founder & CEO of CloudMinds
Bill Huang is the Founder and CEO of CloudMinds, the world’s first intelligent cloud robot operator. Mr. Huang has been a new technology advocate for the telecom industry with near 30 years of work experience in the development of key technologies. He has in-depth experience and insightful thoughts in the areas of next generation mobile switching systems (3G/4G/5G), IP media streaming (IPTV/OTT), EPON/GPON, Multi-service mobile Softswitch, Operation Support System (OSS/BSS), Mobile Internet and mobile communication industry.
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About CloudMinds: As the First Cloud Robots services company, CloudMinds is developing an end-to-end ecosystem to support cloud connected smart machines
Michael Winn
CEO and Co-Founder of DroneDeploy
Michael Winn is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DroneDeploy, a cloud-based drone platform that provides automated flight safety checks, workflows, real-time mapping, and data processing.
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About DroneDeploy: DroneDeploy is a cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform to help businesses get things done.
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher
Founder & CEO of Starsky Robotics
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher is CEO and Founder of Starsky Robotics, a driverless truck startup launched in August 2016, which aims to make roads safer and allow truck drivers to work closer to home. Starsky Robotics began moving freight on the highway in February 2017, and in February 2018 drove a truck fully unmanned for seven miles on the highway. Starsky raised a $16.5 million Series A round led by Shasta Ventures, with substantial contributions from previous investors like Y Combinator, Trucks.vc, 50 Years, 9Point Ventures, and many others. Prior to founding Starsky Robotics, Stefan worked with a number of Silicon Valley startups, partnering with innovators in logistics and engineering fields. He holds a degree in International Business from Drexel University.
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About Starsky Robotics: Starsky Robotics is a San Francisco-based autonomous trucking company.
Bradley Bogolea
Co-Founder & CEO of Simbe Robotics
Bradley Bogolea, also known as Brad, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Simbe Robotics.
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About Simbe Robotics: Simbe Robotics builds automation solutions for shelf auditing and analytics.
Jack Wu
Co-Founder & CEO of Nightingale Security
Jack Wu joined Nightingale Security as Co-Founder & CEO in 2014.
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About Nightingale Security: Nightingale Security is a autonomous drone solution in aerial robotic security.
Brandon Alexander
Co-Founder & CEO of Iron Ox
Brandon Alexander is the CEO and cofounder of Iron Ox, a company building robotic greenhouses to make premium produce accessible to everyone. Inspired by his family farm and his career in robotics, Brandon sought to find a sustainable approach to feeding the world’s growing population in an industry that’s challenged with a declining labor force and extreme weather conditions. With his cofounder Jon Binney, he traveled all across California to talk with local farmers about the challenges facing the industry and how robotics can provide modern solutions. Brandon has a track record of laying the groundwork for successful robotic deployment. He previously played a key role in Google[x]’s drone delivery program, Project Wing, where he developed the flight mission control software. He has also worked at the robotics think tank Willow Garage.
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About Iron Ox: Iron Ox operates autonomous robotic greenhouses that grow every plant at its best from seed to harvest.
Ryan McKenna
CEO of New Entity Operations
CEO of New Entity Operations Inc.
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About New Entity Operations: New Entity Operations Inc. builds and organizes software projects to bring entity-centric computer systems to market.
Don Burnette
Co-Founder & CEO of Kodiak Robotics
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About Kodiak Robotics: Kodiak Robotics develops autonomous technology for long-haul trucking.
Hugo de Gentile
Co-Founder & CEO of Willo
Hugo de Gentile is the Co-Founder and CEO at Willo
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About Willo: Willo develops technology in oral health that automatically empowers everyone to achieve the best at-home clean possible.
Paul Mikesell
Founder / CEO of Carbon Robotics
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About Carbon Robotics: Carbon Robotics develops robots for agriculture-related applications.
Victor Darolfi
Founder & CEO of RoboTire
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About RoboTire: RoboTire automates vehicle maintenance by combining robots and computer vision.
Noah Ready-Campbell
Founder, CEO & Engineer of Built Robotics
Noah is the founder and CEO of Built Robotics, a company building automated guidance systems for heavy equipment. He founded the company in 2016, and has raised over $48 million from leading Silicon Valley investors including Founders Fund, NEA and Next47. Previously, Noah founded an ecommerce startup called Twice, which raised $23 million from Andreessen Horowitz before eBay acquired it in 2015. Noah began his career at Google, and he studied business and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, but his first job was working as a carpenter’s helper for his dad, helping to renovate old houses in rural New England.
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About Built Robotics: Built Robotics transforms heavy equipment into autonomous robots for the $1 trillion earthmoving industry.
Kim Abrams
CEO & Co-Founder of Petra
Kim Abrams is the CEO and Co-Founder at Petra.
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About Petra: Petra is a Robotics company that focuses solely on underground utilities.
Brian Gerkey
Chief Executive Officer, Founder of Open Robotics
Brian Gerkey is CEO of Open Robotics. Prior to joining Open Robotics, Brian was Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage. Previously, Brian was a Computer Scientist in the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI, and before that, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford University. Brian received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2003, his M.S. in Computer Science from USC in 2000, and his B.S.E. in Computer Engineering, with a secondary major in Mathematics and a minor in Robotics and Automation, from Tulane University in 1998. Among other accolades, Brian was recognized by MIT Technology Review with the TR35 award and by Silicon Valley Business Journal with their 40 Under 40 award.
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About Open Robotics: Open Robotics support the development, distribution, and adoption of open software and hardware for use in robotics.
Felipe Chávez Cortés
CEO & Co-Founder of Kiwibot
CEO Kiwibot.com.
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About Kiwibot: Kiwibot offers food delivery with robots for campus colleges.
Kelsey Mellard
CEO & Co-Founder of Sitka
Kelsey Mellard is the CEO and Founder of Sitka, a first-of-its-kind medical vConsults platform and specialty provider network. She launched Sitka in 2018 to help improve access to and delivery of specialty care across the nation. Prior to founding Sitka, Kelsey led Health System Integration at Honor, a comprehensive technology-backed home care company. Before joining the Honor, Kelsey led the development of the Post-Acute Care Center for Research (PACCR), which she served as its Executive Director. Kelsey also served in VP roles at naviHealth, UnitedHealth Group, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and held positions at Advisory Board Company, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, and Kaiser Family Foundation. Kelsey holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Community Health from Winona State University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas. She also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Winona State University in the College of Nursing and Health Services.
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About Sitka, Winona State University: Sitka is a customizable video software platform that connects primary care providers to the virtual specialty provider network.
Kenny Hawk
CEO of MOJIO
Kenny is the CEO of Mojio. He previously led five companies as CEO; Various Inc., leading internet based social networking and multimedia entertainment company with over 650 Million registered users worldwide, BrandBoards, pioneer of Google Adwords SAAS platform for live event advertising, Ubidyne, the global leader in active antenna systems for 3G/4G mobile networks (Acquired by Kathrein AG); NemeriX, low power GPS chipsets for smartphones (Acquired by Qualcomm in 2009) ; and iGo, a company Kenny founded while at Stanford and took public in 1999. iGo has sold over $1 billion power devices since inception. Kenny holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Stanford University where he enjoys guest lecturing at the engineering school’s entrepreneur program.
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About MOJIO: Scalable, secure and hardware-agnostic, Mojio is the platform and SaaS provider of choice to build and scale connected mobility services.
Tyler Shultz
Co-Founder & CEO of Flux Bioscience
Tyler Shultz is an entrepreneur fostering innovation in healthcare.
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About Ethics in Entrepreneurship, Flux Bioscience: Flux Biosciences is a company spun out of Stanford University, where the technology used to read and write computer hard drives .
Jim Keravala
CEO & Cofounder of OffWorld
Jim is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of OffWorld, building an industrial robotic workforce to undertake mining, manufacturing and construction on planetary surfaces and in space. The robotic workforce forms a solar system platform that will enable the construction of space based solar power stations, propellant depots and entire settlements. He brings 30 years of experience and visionary leadership in innovation in multidisciplinary areas such as aerospace engineering, space systems, robotics and machine intelligence, manufacturing and construction, computer science, synthetic biology and molecularly precise control systems. Jim is a prolific technologist and an accomplished entrepreneur able to constantly identify new acceleration ramps in the technological landscape. Jim started his career in the space launch industry managing launch programs overseeing over a dozen successful orbital launches on Russian, European and US launch vehicles. Modular satellite design, integration engineering and program management were part of this process.
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About OffWorld: OffWorld is developing a learning robotic workforce for heavy industrial jobs on Earth, Moon, asteroids & Mars.
Chris Anderson
CEO of 3D Robotics
I’m the CEO of 3DR, founder and chairman of the Linux Foundation’s Dronecode Project, and founder of the DIY Drones and DIY Robocarscommunities, including the ArduPilot autopilot project. From 2001 through 2012 I was the Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine. Before Wired I was with The Economist for seven years in London, Hong Kong and New York. I’m the author of the New York Times bestselling books The Long Tail and Free as well as Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Awards include: Editor of the Year by Ad Age (2005). Named to the “Time 100,” the newsmagazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2007). Loeb Award for Business Book of the Year (2007). Wired named Magazine of the Decade by AdWeek for my tenure (2009). Time Magazine’s Tech 40 — The Most Influential Minds In Technology (2013). Foreign Policy Magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers (2013) I founded GeekDad, BookTour and a few other companies now lost in the mists of time. My background is in science, starting with studying computational physics and doing research at Los Alamos and culminating in six years at the two leading scientific journals, Nature and Science. In my misspent youth I was a bit player in the DC punk scene and, amusingly, a band called REM (not that one). I live in Berkeley, California, with my wife and five kids.
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About 3D Robotics, TED: 3DR makes advanced drone technology easily accessible to the construction, mining, and surveying industries for use in data analysis.
Ankit Jain
Founder & CEO of Infinitus Systems
Ankit is a serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Infinitus Systems, Inc. Most recently, Ankit was a Founding Partner at Gradient Ventures and a Director of Engineering at Google. Previously, he was the Vice President of Product at SimilarWeb, which he joined via the acquisition of mobile intelligence startup Quettra that he founded and led as CEO. Prior to Quettra, Ankit was the Head of Search, Discovery and Infrastructure for Google Play, which he joined through the acquisition of Cuil. At Cuil, he helped build several parts of web, real time and social search engines from scratch. Ankit has co-authored the leading chapter in the book Next Generation Search Engines: Advanced Models for Information Retrieval as well as one of the most defining blog posts about mobile app retention. Ankit received his BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley (Cal) and his MS in Computer Science with a focus on Parallel and Distributed Computing also from Cal. He received a Certificate in Management of Technology from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at Cal.
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About Infinitus Systems: Infinitus is a startup company that develops voice robotic process automation tools for the health care industry.
Greg Castle
Managing Partner, Founder & CEO of Anorak Ventures
Greg is the Managing Partner of Anorak Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on emerging technology. Based in Silicon Valley, the firm focuses on VR/AR, robotics, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, deep learning and artificial intelligence. Portfolio companies include Against Gravity, Catalog, Lightform and 6d.ai. Prior to Anorak, Greg was an active angel investor with 26 investments counting Flexport and two exits including Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook for $2bln. With strong ties to the VR/AR community, Greg focuses much of his time investing in, and mentoring startups in this sector. Previously, Greg led marketing for the popular game development company Scaleform (acq. 2011) and for Autodesk’s Game Technology Group.
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About Anorak Ventures: Investing at the earliest stages in transformational people and technology
Aicha Evans
CEO of Zoox
Aicha Evans, Chief Executive Officer at Zoox, is reimagining mobility in dense urban environments and redefining the customer experience through the creation of the first purpose-built, fully autonomous, electric vehicle. Prior to joining Zoox, Aicha served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Intel Corporation, driving the company’s strategy to transform from a PC-centric to a data-centric company. She is a member of the Supervisory Board of SAP and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from The George Washington University.
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About Intel, Zoox: Zoox is an AI robotics company that provides mobility as-a-service and self-driving car services.
Keller Rinaudo
Co-Founder and CEO of Zipline
Keller Rinaudo is CEO and co-founder of Zipline, the world’s first drone delivery service whose focus is delivering life saving medicine even to the most difficult to reach places on earth. Prior to Zipline, he was a software engineer and a professional rock climber. A graduate of Harvard University, he built computers out of RNA and DNA that can operate in human cells as molecular doctors. Mr. Rinaudo published this research in Nature Biotechnology, becoming one of the youngest first authors in the publication’s history.
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About Zipline: Zipline designs, manufactures, and operates drones to deliver vital medical products to everyone, no matter where they live.
Andreas Raptopoulos
Co-Founder and CEO of Matternet
Founded Matternet and serves as Chief Executive Officer since 2011. Pioneering on-demand drone logistics networks for medical items and commercial goods. Motivated by the desire to solve one of humanity’s grand challenges, equal access to goods, by leapfrogging road infrastructure. Holds an BS & MS in Aeronautical Engineering, is a Royal College of Art graduate in Design and is lead inventor in several US and international patents. Speaker, Google Solve for X, 2012 & TED Global, 2013. Tech Pioneer, World Economic Forum, 2015.
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About Matternet: Matternet makes access to goods as frictionless and universal as access to information.
Naganand Murty
Founder & CEO of Electric Sheep Robotics
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About Electric Sheep Robotics: Electric Sheep Robotics provides robotics and machinery solutions to industries needing mechanized solutions.
Jason Devitt
CEO of Compound Eye
Jason Devitt is CEO and co-founder of Mr. Number, a company that helps consumers to control who can call their mobile phone and when. An advocate for open networks, open devices, and open development platforms, Jason has testified on these issues before Congress and the FCC. Previously, Jason co-founded Skydeck, a company that enabled consumers to back up and manage all of their cell phone data online. Jason developed the idea for Skydeck while an entrepreneur-in-residence at iHatch, a venture capital firm that focuses on the mobile market. Prior to Skydeck, Jason co-founded Vindigo, one of the first companies to publish content and applications for mobile phones in the US. Products included Mapquest Mobile, MovieGoer, and the Vindigo City Guide. Jason led the company from inception to over $10 million in revenue and profitability in 2005. Jason spent four years working for the technology-driven investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. in London and New York, where he structured OTC equity derivatives. He grew up in Ireland and has a Master’s Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Diploma in Law from UCD and the King’s Inns in his hometown of Dublin.
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About Compound Eye: Compound Eye develops 3D vision systems for autonomous machines.
Tessa Lau
Co-founder & CEO of Dusty Robotics
Dr. Tessa Lau is an experienced entrepreneur with expertise in AI, machine learning, and robotics. She is currently Founder/CEO at Dusty Robotics, whose mission is to address construction industry productivity by introducing robotic automation on the jobsite. Prior to Dusty, she was CTO/co-founder at Savioke, where she orchestrated the deployment of 75+ delivery robots into hotels and high-rises. Previously, Dr. Lau was a Research Scientist at Willow Garage, where she developed simple interfaces for personal robots. She also spent 11 years at IBM Research working in business process automation and knowledge capture. More generally, Dr. Lau is interested in developing technology that gives people super-powers, and building businesses that bring that technology into people’s lives. Dr. Lau holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington.
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About Dusty Robotics: Dusty Robotics develops robot-powered tools for the modern construction workforce.
Sébastien Boyer
Co-founder & CEO of FarmWise
Before co-founding FarmWise, Sebastien worked as a mathematician for IBM Research and a data scientist for Facebook. He holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from MIT, where he studied machine learning and recent advances in computer vision. While at MIT, he won the Machine Learning for the Digital Economy competition. He is passionate about developing technologies that address long-term environmental sustainability problems. He was one of the winners of Innovators Under 35 Europe 2018 from MIT Technology Review and named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
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About FarmWise: Feeding our World, and our Future.
Pervez Qureshi
Chief Executive Officer of Saba Software
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About Saba Software: We want to help transform your talent management processes to help you drive better business results and gain competitive advantage.
Philip Saunders
CEO and Member of the Board of Directors of Saba Software
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About Saba Software: We want to help transform your talent management processes to help you drive better business results and gain competitive advantage.
Eric Sanchez
Co-Founder, CEO of Revl
Eric Sanchez is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Revl.
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About Revl: AI Powered Video Souvenirs as a Service. Full end to end solution for roller coasters, skydive drop zones, race tracks, and zip lines.
Manal Habib
CEO & Cofounder of MightyFly
Manal Habib is co-founder and CEO at MightyFly. A graduate from both MIT and Stanford, Manal has developed a strong technical background in aerospace engineering. She previously led flight controls at Zipline and developed the first robust commercial flight controller. She is a private pilot and in the process of building her own airplane. Her passion for aerospace, vision for a better world, and determination make her a motivated and unstoppable entrepreneur and leader.
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About MightyFly: Remaking the future of logistics
Tyler Hayes
Co-Founder and CEO of Atom Limbs
Tyler Hayes is the Co-Founder and CEO at Atom Limbs.
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About Atom Limbs: Atom builds mind-controlled artificial limbs, to enable a better human body.
Eric Monsef
Co-Founder and CEO of Atom Limbs
Eric Monsef is the Co-founder and CTO at Atom Limbs.
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About Atom Limbs: Atom builds mind-controlled artificial limbs, to enable a better human body.
Maxwell Reynolds
Co-Founder & CEO of Symbio Robotics
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About Symbio Robotics: Symbio Robotics is developing robotic systems and software for advanced manufacturing.
Ali Ahmed
Founder & CEO of Robomart
Serial entrepreneur voted one of the ‘Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech’ by KPMG and endorsed by TechCity UK and the UK Government as an exceptional talent in technology, with over a decade of experience in on-demand delivery, communications and retail tech. Previously founded on-demand delivery startup Dispatch, and Lutebox, and worked at Groupon, Unilever, GSK.
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About GlaxoSmithKline, Groupon, Robomart, RSM International: On-Demand Mobile Stores
Youssri Helmy
Founder, CEO of Eonite Perception
Youssri brings over 25 years of experience in engineering, product management, marketing, and business development in a wide range of technologies to Eonite. He is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully cofounded, operated and exited several startups globally.
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About Eonite Perception, Si-Ware Systems: Eonite Perception is a 3D mapping and tracking company on a mission to enable machines to understand the real world.
Mengqiu Wang
Founder & CEO of Zero Zero Robotics
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About Zero Zero Robotics: Zero Zero Robotics is working to develop an innovative new device called the Hover Camera.
Shai Magzimof
Founder & CEO of Phantom Auto
Before Phantom Auto, Shai founded his first company at age 17 while participating in Y-combinator. That company later became Cue and was acquired by Apple. At age 20, Shai founded Nextpeer, a real-time multiplayer mobile gaming social platform, which had over 180 million downloads before it was acquired by Viber. Shai served as an executive at Viber for a year. In late 2017 Shai started Phantom Auto from his garage in Palo Alto.
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About Phantom Auto: Phantom Auto is a software company that offers teleoperation safety solutions and remote operations for logistics vehicles.
Jeremy O’Sullivan
CEO of Frobot
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About Frobot: Frobot manufactures robots that produce frozen confections made to order.
Christian Sanz
CEO and Founder of Skycatch
Christian Sanz is the CEO and founder of Skycatch and has over 20 years of experience in software, hardware, and technical leadership.
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About Skycatch: Skycatch builds technology to autonomously capture, process, and analyze 3D drone data.
Igino Cafiero
Founder, CEO of Bear Flag Robotics
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About Bear Flag Robotics: Bear Flag Robotics is an AgTech company developing autonomous technology for farm tractors to increase productivity and improve safety.
Kevin Primat
Founder & CEO of Primed Technologies
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About Primed Technologies: Primed is redefining Conversational AI with the development of a fuzzy, friendly and talkative toy for children.
William Jenkins
President & CEO of Barracuda Networks
BJ joined Palo Alto Networks in August 2021. As president, BJ oversees the company’s go-to-market functions, including sales, support, consulting, business development and operations, and partnerships. Previously, BJ served as president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, leading the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the strategic acquisitions of SignNow, Intronis, Sonian and PhishLine. Prior to joining Barracuda, BJ held multiple business unit and sales and marketing leadership roles at EMC, including president of EMC’s Backup Recovery Systems (BRS) Division. BJ earned an engineering degree from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Barracuda Networks, Palo Alto Networks: Barracuda is a provider of powerful, easy-to-use, affordable IT solutions for security and storage.
Will Patrick
Co-Founder & CEO of Culture Biosciences
Will Patrick is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Culture Robotics.
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About Culture Biosciences: Culture Biosciences develops automated bio-reactors that help companies optimize their manufacturing processes.
Tony Boutelle
President and CEO of CU Direct
Tony Boutelle is the president and chief executive officer of CU Direct. Tony has over 30 years of credit union industry experience, beginning his career at the Colorado Credit Union League in 1985. He continued his career at the California Credit Union League in the beginning of 1987 and moved to CUNA Mutual Group in 1991 where he held executive positions at both companies. He returned to the California Credit Union League in 1994 to start CU Direct Corporation. He has built the network to include 1,000 credit unions that represent 45 million members and over 13,000 auto dealers.
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About CU Direct: Technology and solutions for dealers and lenders
Joe Augenbraun
CEO of Peanut Robotics
Joe Augenbraun is the CEO of Peanut Robotics. Before that, he was the CEO of Neato Robotics.
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About Bizzy Robots, Inc. (dba Martian Robots), Peanut Robotics, Stanford University: Peanut Robotics offers a robot that cleans commercial spaces such as restaurants, hotels, airports, and offices.
Jeff Linnell
Founder & CEO of Formant
Jeff Linnell is the Founder & CEO at Formant.
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About Formant: Formant is a monitoring and operations software that connects people, processes, sensors, and robots through a robotic approach platform.
David W. Sanders
Chairman & CEO of CyberCSI
David Sanders has been a successful tech entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Mr. Sanders’ career as a serial entrepreneur began at an early age with disk jockey and database consulting businesses. After serving as a consultant to distinguished high-tech companies, including Apple and Hewlett Packard, Mr. Sanders founded cyberCSI. He currently serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Since its founding in 1993, cyberCSI has been providing IT outsourcing services and most recently proprietary cloud software to medium to large-size companies. In the past several years, Mr. Sanders’ business interests have expanded to angel investing and the founding of successful websites including GottaBeMobile.com, MoneyNation.com, MotorReview.com and Notebooks.com. Beyond his business interests, Mr. Sanders supports numerous philanthropic causes and organizations. He sits on the board of Goodwill Silicon Valley and is an active global member of Gen Next, a nonprofit comprised of executives and entrepreneurs dedicated to helping the next generation pursue economic growth, education and international security. In addition, Mr. Sanders directed the raising of $4.0+M for outreach to disadvantaged individuals and families struggling with alcohol and drug addiction and is a volunteer at Veterans of Foreign War events.
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About CyberCSI: cyberCSI provides the most cost effective IT life cycle management services utilizing proprietary cloud software. Cyber security for SMB’s.
Henry Hu
CEO & Co-founder of Cafe X Technologies
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About Cafe X Technologies: Cafe X Technologies is focused on increasing productivity in the service industry through automation.
Mike Miskovsky
Founder & CEO of Tiveni
Mike Miskovsky is the CEO at Tiveni
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About Ojjo, Powerhouse, Tiveni: Tiveni provides battery technology for automobile companies throughout the State of California.
Khaled Hassounah
CEO & Founder of Ample
A visionary technologist, Khaled has recruited and built technical teams across multiple early-stage startups and managed them through rapid growth to deliver successful and innovative products. Khaled has proven experience in building and deploying scalable software that has been used and continues to be used by tens of millions of enterprise and online users across multiple verticals. He has also set up and managed teams across India, China and the Middle East. Prior to MedHelp, he was a founding member of IMlogic, an instant messaging security software company acquired by Symantec, where he built the tech team and managed the delivery of three successful product offerings. Khaled was also the a founding member of One World Software Solutions, a technical consulting company that grew to span three continents, and was part of the NetDocs team at Microsoft. Khaled holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan.
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About Ample, MedHelp, NetDocs: Ample utilizes autonomous robotics and smart-battery technology to solve the energy delivery challenge for electric transportation.
Jon Sobel
CEO & Co-Founder of Sight Machine
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About Sight Machine, University of Michigan: Sight Machine provides analytics platform that helps address critical challenges in quality and productivity throughout the enterprise.
Timothy Harris
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Swift Navigation
Timothy Harris, co-founder and CEO of Swift Navigation, is focused on building a world-class organization that will power the next generation of GPS-enabled robots and autonomous vehicles. A proven leader in the high-accuracy GPS industry, Tim leads teams that are excited to drive innovation and challenge each other to achieve visionary change. Prior to Swift, he worked in supply chain consulting for OR Soft Jaenicke GmbH in Halle, Germany, and in corporate finance for Emerge Digital Group, where he oversaw M&A and strategic partnerships for a digital media holding company. Tim holds a JD degree from Boston University and a BA degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Swift Navigation: Swift Navigation offers hardware and software that makes GPS positioning technology available for autonomous vehicle and device guidance.
Lior Elazary
Founder / CEO of inVia Robotics
Lior is a serial entrepreneur with several companies under his belt, all with very successful exits. Along with his partners Alex Kazarani and Marc Afsharieh, Lior co-founded HostPro (now Web.com) which grew into a leading hosting provider in the industry with over 70,000 customers. After HostPro, Lior co-founded KnowledgeBase, and EdgeCast with Alex Kazarani, Phil Goldsmith, James Segil and Jay Sakata. At all three companies he has been the chief architect responsible for designing and implementing key patented technologies that are now critical to the backbone of the Internet and are used by many Fortune 500 customers. With more than twenty years of leadership and business experience bringing to market many of the systems that power the Internet, Lior has directed and guided teams developing everything from back-office systems to the core technologies of the business. While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, Lior closely worked with inVia Robotics co-founders Dan and Rand on various robotics and neuroscience projects. These DARPA funded projects ranged from object recognition for drones, implementing the star-wars binoculars used to help soldiers in field, to the latest DARPA Robotic Challenge. Working on strict metrics and deadlines from DARPA, the projects often included implementations of massive parallel grid computing which were used to achieve the required results in real time. The development of these projects led to the Neuromorphic Robotics Toolkit (NRT) which has been designed to outperform the Robotic Operating System (ROS). Currently on a leave of absence from the Ph.D., Lior holds a Masters in Robotics from the University of Southern California and has several publications ranging from neuroscience to robotics.
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About inVia Robotics, Verizon Digital Media Services: InVia Robotics provides next-generation robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce distribution centers and supply chains.
Elnaz Sarraf
Founder & CEO of ROYBI
Elnaz Sarraf is the Founder & CEO at ROYBI.
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About Consumer Technology Association, Forbes Technology Council, ROYBI, Staphz, Inc, World Business Angels Investment Forum: Roybi Robot is an AI-powered companion robot for young children in language learning & early childhood education.
Yoav Toussia-Cohen
CEO of DoiT International
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About DoiT International: We tackle complex problems of scale using our expertise in resolving problems, coding, algorithms, complexity analysis, and system design.
Aaron Nathan
Founder & CEO of Point One Navigation
A hands on technical leader with over a decade of experience in cutting edge robotics work and mission critical development in both software and hardware. Designed, built and deployed complex systems in financial tech, defense, research, and enterprise. A firm believer tightly coupled hardware and software solutions with a focus on the end user experience.
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About Point One Navigation: Point One Navigation is building a centimeter accurate localization service for the future of transportation.
Thuc Vu
Co-Founder & CEO of OhmniLabs
Dr. Thuc Vu is a serial entrepreneur. In the past, he founded Katango and Tappy, which were acquired by Google and Weeby.co, respectively. Today, he is the co-founder and CEO of OhmniLabs.
Thuc has deep expertise in game theory, machine learning, tournament design and multi-agent systems. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. For more information about Thuc, please visit: https://ohmnilabs.com/about-us/thuc-vu/
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About OhmniLabs: Ohmnilabs develops indispensable human-centric robots and brings them mainstream. OhmniLabs is the creator of the award-winning Ohmni Telepresence Robot robot that transforms how people connect, from their homes, businesses, classrooms, and hospitals.
It is also the developer of OhmniClean, the premier UV-C Disinfection Robot that provides faster, fully autonomous disinfection using Ohmnilab’s revolutionary technology. To learn more about OhmniLabs, please visit: https://ohmnilabs.com/
Richard Black
Founder and CEO of Halfcode
Richard founded Halfcode in 2017 on the simple belief that we can help find solutions to critical human issues that affect all of us using artificial intelligence. He leads Halfcode’s strategic vision and is responsible for driving the company to become a disruptive player and market leader in artificial intelligence. He is passionate in his belief that technology companies have a social responsibility to make a positive impact in the world.
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About Halfcode: Halfcode is an artificial intelligence company based in Menlo Park, California.
DJ Kleinbaum
Co-founder & Co-CEO of Emerald Cloud Lab
D.J. Kleinbaum is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Emerald Therapeutics. D.J. received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University. While at Stanford, he designed and synthesized new architectures for DNA-templated reactions that can be used to detect RNA in living cells under the direction of Professor Eric Kool. He is an inventor on five patents and has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Bioconjugate Chemistry, and Chemical Communications.
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About Emerald Cloud Lab: Emerald Cloud Lab is building technology platforms to drive the future of biotechnology innovation.
Brian Frezza
Co-founder & Co-CEO of Emerald Cloud Lab
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About Emerald Cloud Lab: Emerald Cloud Lab is building technology platforms to drive the future of biotechnology innovation.
David Merrill
CEO and Co-Founder of Elroy Air
Dave Merrill is the co-founder and CEO of Elroy Air, a company dedicated to expanding the reach of express logistics with advanced vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) cargo aircraft systems. The company’s first aircraft – the Chaparral – is designed for fully-automated flight and cargo-handling with lightweight modular containers, and will carry 250+ lbs of payload with a 300 mi range. Dave is a technology executive and startup founder with a background in computer science and robotic+interactive systems. Alumnus of MIT (Ph.D.) and Stanford Computer Science / Symbolic Systems (BS, MS), TED speaker, and experienced startup-builder. His work and companies have been featured by the Discovery Channel, Popular Science, Wired, TechCrunch, the New York Times, Forbes and Aviation Week.
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About Elroy Air, Lemnos VC: Elroy Air is a logistics company that specializes in the fields of logistics, robotics, and air transportation.
Brent Oster
Founder and CEO of ORBAI
Brent Oster has 26 years experience in 3D computer graphics, animation, and simulation with Bioware, Electronic Arts, Autodesk, NVIDIA, and 4 years deep learning and AI at NVIDIA. He was the co-founder Bioware and Check Six, and he has completed the Stanford Continuing Studies curriculum of classes in entrepreneurial business, along with his degrees in Aerospace Engineering at University of Toronto and Scientific Computing at UC Santa Barbara.
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About ORBAI: Developing Artificial General Intelligence
Satoshi Sugie
Representative Director, CEO, and Founder of WHILL
After working at the NISSAN Technical Center, He co-founded the WHILL Project in 2011.World Economic Forum Davas Meeting and a GSC Japan member.
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About WHILL: WHILL designs and creates personal mobility products for indoor and outdoor applications.
Marco Mascorro
Founder, CEO of Fellow AI
Marco is an entrepreneur, roboticist, passionate about technology and innovation. He likes programming, robotics, Internet of things, virtual reality, artificial Intelligence, disruptive technologies, 3D printing, product design and startups. He loves starting new things, creating new stuff, exploring new cultures, has lived in 6 countries and is a passionate doer.
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About Fellow AI: Cloud-based Inventory Management and Supply Chain Solutions
Ryan Measel
Chief Executive Officer of Fantasmo.io
Ryan Measel received his B.S. in Computer Engineering (2011), M.S. in Electrical Engineering (2011), and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (2015) from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His research spanned a variety of areas including wireless communication, mobile applications, network protocols, software defined radios, reconfigurable antennas, cellular infrastructure, and chipless RFID. Ryan co-founded Fantasmo in 2014 and currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer. He also serves as the Chair of the IEEE Coastal Los Angeles Young Professionals group.
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About Fantasmo.io: Fantasmo builds a decentralized, open source stack for indoor and outdoor 3D maps and camera-based positioning.
Pree Walia
CEO & Founder of Preemadonna
Founder at Preemadonna
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About Preemadonna: Preemadonna is the maker of Nailbot, a patented nail robot and intelligent manicure product line disrupting the $15B nail care industry.
Erik Franks
CEO of Tesseract
Erik Franks is a veteran startup founder and space industry professional. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and also earned a Masters in Space Studies from International Space University. He was ground operations lead for one of the prime contractors of DARPA’s XS-1 reusable spaceplane program and has extensive prior experience in technical program management and project oversight.
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About Tesseract: Tesseract is a provider of cost effective propulsion components and systems for in-space applications.
Scott Kim
CEO of Neofect
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About Neofect: Neofect develops innovative home exercise device and software for stroke survivors’ fast recovery and rehabilitation.
Graham Hooper
President & Chief Executive Officer of Ellison Technologies
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About Ellison Technologies: Ellison Technologies has been a provider of advanced manufacturing solutions to its clients.
Cory Kidd
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Catalia Health
Cory Kidd is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health.
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About Catalia Health, Fresco Capital, Wikistrat: We create the Mabu personal healthcare companion to help patients with chronic disease and collect data to healthcare providers.
Theodore Cohen
CEO of TiTAN Platform US
Adrian Sexton is a digital executive and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience across traditional and digital media companies As former digital head of two media companies, Lionsgate and Participant Media, and co-founder of two strategic consultancies, TAG Strategic and New Medici, Sexton brings a hybrid background in operational media strategy, content marketing/distribution, product and business development. Before New Medici, Sexton was Executive Vice President, Digital at Participant Media. He was responsible for running the company’s expansion into global media, digital distribution and marketing, and architecting TakePart.com, its $14M+ cause marketing social action networkâ„¢. Traffic to TakePart.com grew 1000% year-over-year during Sexton’s tenure. As an Executive Committee member at Participant, he sat on the M&A, New Business and Social Action boards, involving theatrical greenlights and investments including $1B Summit Entertainment financing and $250M Abu Dhabi co-funding deals. Sexton worked on such films as Food Inc., The Visitor, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Kite Runner, and the Academy Award®-winning documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and The Cove. Sexton came to Participant from TAG Strategic, a digital media and entertainment agency he co-founded with EMI veteran Ted Cohen. TAG’s diverse client roster has included Lionsgate, Qualcomm, Sandisk, Gibson, Muze and LivePlanet. Before forming TAG, Sexton headed Digital Media as Vice President at Lionsgate, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations, production, media planning and business development for digital and mobile properties. His duties encompassed theatrical, home entertainment, television, international and physical studios. He oversaw the digital campaigns for such movies as the Best Picture Academy Award -winning Crash, Oscar-winning Monster’s Ball, Fahrenheit 9/11, as well as the SAW and Tyler Perry franchises. Sexton identified multiple-platform marketing, distribution and sales opportunities for the studio’s 8000+ title film library in such high-growth markets as broadband, mobile, digital cinema, peer-to-peer and IPTV. Lionsgate’s market capitalization rose from $60 million to $1.2 billion during Sexton’s tenure; and he was part of the senior team which secured the $350 million credit facility to acquire Artisan Entertainment. Prior to Lionsgate, Sexton was the New Media Director at Mediapact Capital, a $500 million media management and investment capital firm which invested in and took control of Lionsgate. His professional experience also includes work in television at Sony Pictures, production and development at HBO Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Saban Entertainment. Sexton delivered a media and entertainment keynotes at the 2009 X|Media|Lab in Auckland and Amsterdam, the studio keynote at the Opening Forum of the 60th Anniversary of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, as well as keynotes at the 2007 Digital Hollywood, 2006 Intel Viiv launch in Tokyo and 2006 Forrester conference in São Paulo. In addition, New Medici won the 2009 British Airways/Harvard Business Review “Face of Opportunity†award. Sexton has served as an arts advisory member of non-profits American Democracy Institute, Games For Change and the Los Angeles Film Festival. Additionally, he is on the Interactive Media Peer Group Awards Committee for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a New Media Council member of the Producers Guild of America.
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About TiTAN Platform US, Wipro Technologies: TiTAN Platform is a smart content and device company. TiTAN delivers an innovative global ecosystem of smart software and hardware products.
Melissa Jawaharlal
CEO and Co-Founder of STEM Center USA
Melissa Jawaharlal is a co-founder of STEM Center USA and engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. She studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and got her Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Melissa’s research field is primarily in space exploration in which she’s served as a design lead for currently orbiting satellites at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) as well as performed software optimization for the United States Air Force. Melissa is passionate about exploring the final frontier of space and engineering for the developing world. Most importantly, she works to ensure that future generations will share that zeal for STEM advancement. She has presented her work at MIT through the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program as well as through NCIIA and Inventor’s Digest. Melissa has mentored and taught in numerous robotics related activities for several years and has been recognized for her coaching and instruction style. She is passionate about hands-on, experiential learning and seeks to revolutionize K-12 STEM education. Melissa is an avid traveler and enjoys adventuring to new places and scuba diving.trepreneur. Educator. Traveler. Vegetarian going Vegan.
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About California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, STEM Center USA: STEM Center USA inspires the next generation of STEM leaders by developing a passion for STEM careers at a young age.
Angus Pacala
Co-Founder/CEO of Ouster
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About Ouster: Ouster builds high-resolution lidar sensors for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and many other applications.
David King
CEO of FogHorn
Mr. David C. King has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Airtight Networks Inc., since 2004. Mr. King served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Netopia Inc. He served as Proxim Corp.’s President and Chief Operating Officer from March 2002 to December 2002. Mr. King served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Proxim Inc. since July 1993. Mr. King served as Vice President of Marketing and Acting Chief Financial Officer of Proxim Inc. since
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About FogHorn: FogHorn is a developer of “edge intelligence” software for industrial and commercial IoT application solutions.
Fred Parietti
Co-Founder & CEO of Multiply Labs
Fred (Federico) Parietti is the Co-Founder & CEO at Multiply Labs.
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About Multiply Labs: Multiply Labs deploys advanced robotics technology to manufacture personalized pharmaceutical capsules.
Grant Jordan
CEO of SkySafe
Grant Jordan is the CEO at SkySafe.
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About SkySafe: SkySafe allows governments, law enforcement, airports, cities, and more to manage their airspace with real-time drone data and analytics.
Derik Pridmore
Co-Founder & CEO of Osaro
Derik Pridmore is an entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Osaro, a San Francisco based AI company building machine learning software for industrial automation. Derik was previously a venture capitalist, hedge fund manager, and angel investor, and has over a decade of investment and operational experience. Derik was a Principal at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture fund led by PayPal founder Peter Thiel. At Founders Fund, Derik drove investments in a variety of companies including DeepMind, where he worked closely with the founding team. Derik is also an investor in New York based deep learning startup Clarifai. Prior to Osaro, Derik founded and managed Arda Capital Management, a quantitative equity hedge fund. Derik holds B.S. degrees in Physics and Computer Science (2001) and an M.Eng. degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (2004) from MIT.
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About Osaro: Osaro is an artificial intelligence company developing products based on proprietary deep reinforcement learning technology.
Teo Borschberg
CEO & Co-founder of OTO Systems
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About OTO Systems: OTO Systems develops a next-generation language processing voice technology to unlock valuable data from voice interactions.
Anil Narasimha
Founder & CEO of Mekonos
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About Mekonos: Mekonos creates a proprietary cell-engineering platform designed for cell therapies on a chip.